Word Origin & History

banal "trite, commonplace," 1840, from Fr. banal, adj., "belonging to a manor, common, hackneyed, commonplace," from O.Fr. banel "communal" (13c.), from ban "decree; legal control; announcement; authorization; payment for use of a communal oven, mill, etc." (see ban (v.)). The modern sense evolved from the word's use in designating things like ovens or mills that belonged to feudal serfs, or else compulsory military service; in either case it was generalized in French through "open to everyone" to "commonplace, ordinary," to "trite, petty."